Pia, great article.Yes this is unusual almost bizarre behaviour. It's as if the CEO had a 'brain snap". Perhaps the hysteria being drummed up about Australian IR got to him. All your points are truly valid, but what I find interesting is the 'banality of evil' associated with the assessment tool Toyota reportedly used. The perception that management is always right and therefore those who scored low on the assessment are 'slackers' is dangerous. As Deming said, 80% of performance is due to the system and that is a management responsibility. Also, how scientific and proven is the assessment tool? A dark day for management in Australia as well as for those workers given the sack.

Hi I think this article is very idealistic and does not take into considertion the legal framework in the country which we all need to be guided by. In toyota's case they have followed the legal guidelines. While to someone not used to dealing with redundances this mayu seem rather crude way of handling the siutation - the law gives us no choice. It requires us to consult with all employees concerened and be completely open and honest about the selection criteria - which is exaclt what Toyota has done. From someone who deals with this situation often i sympathize with Toyota. Maybe its ourlegal framework which needs remodelling and not so much Toyota's values

Amy, I appreciate what you're saying but as one teacher once said to us in our Business Ethics class - legal is not always moral. The legal framework is a 'framework' which must be adhered to at the very least but it's not the only thing a company should look to. It is a 'minimum' - and we must never forget we work with humans and not robots, yet.